Tamara Clark and Gabby Thomas in action at the Texas Relays (© Kirby Lee)
Olympic medallists Gabby Thomas and Keni Harrison produced fast times at the Texas Relays, pushed not just by the strong following winds but by quality opposition.
Thomas, the Olympic bronze medallist, contested her first outdoor race of the year and impressed over 200m. With Tamara Clark for company in the lane beside her, Thomas just about held on to her lead at the end, winning in 21.69 to Clark’s 21.72 (3.1m/s).
Thomas’s winning time is the fastest wind-assisted mark in history, and only six women – Thomas herself included – have ever gone faster in legal conditions. It’s also the fastest ever time recorded before the month of June, and the quickest ever season opener of any 200m sprinter in history.
Just 45 minutes prior, Thomas and Clark finished even closer in the 100m with Thomas once again getting the verdict, 10.92 to Clark’s 10.94 (2.9m/s).
They weren’t the fastest 100m times of the day, though. In the collegiate 100m, held five minutes prior to the professional race, there was an even quicker and closer contest as Celera Barnes sped to a wind-assisted 10.82 (2.8m/s) victory from Jada Baylark (10.83). In the heats on Friday, when the wind wasn’t quite so strong, Barnes had set a wind-legal PB of 11.07 (1.2m/s).
Harrison, the world record-holder in the 100m hurdles, opened her outdoor campaign with the fourth-fastest time of her career, again albeit wind-assisted, though making it no less impressive. Pushed by Christine Clemons and Tonea Marshall, Harrison managed to emerge with a one-metre margin of victory, stopping the clock at 12.32 (3.9m/s). Clemons and Marshall were both timed at 12.45 with Clemons given second place in a photo finish.
The result of the collegiate race was almost as fast but even more surprising, as Alia Armstrong stormed to a 12.33 victory (2.5m/s). The 21-year-old had set a PB of 7.81 for the 60m hurdles during the indoor season, but was disqualified from the NCAA final earlier this month.
Ninety minutes after her hurdles race, Harrison lined up for the 200m and sped to a 22.19 clocking to finish behind Thomas and Clark.
In the men’s 100m, Britain’s European U20 champion Toby Makoyawo made use of the 4.6m/s following wind to smash through the 10-second barrier, winning in 9.90. In the heats on Friday, he set a wind-legal PB of 10.12 (1.1m/s), but Benjamin Azamati impressed on that occasion with a wind-legal 9.90 performance (2.0m/s) to break the Ghanaian record.
Combined events took centre stage at the start of the four-day competition, and Anna Hall produced the first big performance of the meeting. Hall, who turned 21 on the first day of the heptathlon, set PBs in five of the seven disciplines, topped by a 2:04.61 run in the 800m – one of the fastest heptathlon performances of all time in that discipline. She was rewarded with a huge lifetime best of 6412 – the best ever score by a 21-year-old US woman.
In the decathlon, Germany’s Leo Neugebauer, a 21-year-old student at Texas University, surpassed the 8000-point barrier for the first time, winning comfortably with 8131.
In a competitive women’s pole vault contest, Bridget Williams won from Emily Grove on countback, both clearing 4.70m. 2016 Olympic champion Katerina Stefanidi, competing off a shortened approach, finished third with 4.65m.
Elsewhere, there were strong performances from Britton Wilson in the women’s 400m hurdles (54.37), Jacob Fincham-Dukes in the long jump (a wind-assisted 8.45m), Adrian Piperi in the shot (21.54m), and Vernon Turner in the high jump (2.30m).
Jon Mulkeen for World Athletics
